Pompeo 'hopeful' North Korea talks can continue

Earlier this week, U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun said, "Diplomacy is still very much alive".

Ms Choe said in Pyongyang that Mr Kim would decide whether to stick to the launch and test moratorium, and she expects him to "clarify his position" soon.

He downplayed recent satellite images that analysts say show activity at North Korean missile sites and urged against making any "snap judgment" on the significance of the images that appear to show that North Korea has begun rebuilding a portion of the Sohae facility previously used to test long-range missile engines.

She, however, offered that the personal relations between Trump and Kim remain positive, despite what she cast as the sense of hostility and mistrust created by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton's demands at the summit.

While Pompeo said Friday morning that the administration wishes to continue talks with North Korea, Choe's comments fueled mounting concerns that Trump and Kim may not return to the negotiating table anytime soon and followed speculation immediately after the summit that Bolton played a key role in the breakdown. In the meantime, he said, "we have stopped missile testing and nuclear testing".

"What is clear is that the US has thrown away a golden opportunity this time".

President Donald Trump meets North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Feb. 27, 2019, in Hanoi, Vietnam. Earlier this month, Bolton said that if North Korea doesn't shutter its nuclear program and everything associated with it, "they're not going to get relief from the crushing economic sanctions that have been imposed on them and we'll look at ramping those sanctions in fact".

"We continue to work" to deliver on that, Pompeo said.

In Washington this week, the USA special representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, said that diplomacy was "still very much alive", though he did not say if there had been any negotiations since the summit, or outline any plans for further talks. "While we haven't made as much progress in the six months as I would've hoped coming in on the first day, we stay closely engaged with our counterparts in North Korea". "In any situation, our government will endeavour for the restart of North Korea-US negotiations". She said statements by senior Trump advisers since the summit have further worsened the climate.

Kim had committed multiple times to Trump in Hanoi that he would not to resume nuclear or missile testing, Pompeo said. 'I'm not sure why the USA came out with this different description.

"That's Chairman Kim's word", Mr Pompeo said.

"It's the administration's desire that we continue to have conversations around this", he said. "We have every expectation he will live up to that commitment". "I think Chairman Kim understands that".

She blamed the breakdown of talks on the US side, saying the American delegation was being too demanding and inflexible: [The US] "were too busy with pursuing their own political interests and had no honest intention to achieve a result", Choe added, according to TASS.

Any launch would send the stuttering talks on denuclearisation into disarray, after the Hanoi summit broke up without agreement.

"What is clear is that the USA has thrown away a golden opportunity this time", she said of the failed Hanoi talks.

In addition, Moon said, "The role of South Korea in this situation, or the role of President Moon [Jae-in] is not a mediator but facilitator, because a mediator should be an interest-free party, but South Korea is also involved in this problem".

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